Duncan's injuries not major, Spurs dodge serious trouble

Updated 3:02 pm, Sunday, February 10, 2013

The Spurs' Tim Duncan, shooting Saturday vs. the Wizards, later suffered a sore left knee and mild right ankle sprain.

The Spurs' Tim Duncan, shooting Saturday vs. the Wizards, later suffered a sore left knee and mild right ankle sprain.

Photo: Edward A. Ornelas / San Antonio Express-News

Duncan's injuries not major, Spurs dodge serious trouble

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What you heard rippling across San Antonio about 4 p.m. Sunday was the sound of an entire city exhaling at once.

A day after Spurs All-Star forward Tim Duncan had to be helped off the floor in the first half of a victory over Washington with one teammate under each arm, an MRI exam revealed no structural damage to his injured left knee.

Duncan will be listed as day-to-day, and he is likely to join the team on the nine-game rodeo trip that opens Wednesday in Minnesota.

The 36-year-old put a fright into a sellout crowd at the AT&T Center on Saturday, when he crumpled to the floor after Wizards forward Martell Webster rolled into the back of his legs late in the second quarter.

That Duncan emerged from the pileup with nothing more severe than a sore left knee and a mild right ankle sprain counts as good news for the Spurs, who believe they can survive their captain's absence in the short term.

“As a team we just have to pick up the slack,” reserve forward Matt Bonner said. “Obviously it makes a big difference when he's not playing, because he's such a great player. So we just have to buckle down that much more. Everybody else has to play a little better.”

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Having dodged what could have been a season-destroying bullet, expect coach Gregg Popovich to err on the side of paranoid caution when it comes to allowing the two-time NBA Most Valuable Player back on the court.

The Spurs' second-leading scorer, leading rebounder and top shot-blocker, Duncan is in the throes of a resurgent season that hearkens to some of the best years of his prime.

Later this month in Houston, he is scheduled to return to the All-Star Game for the 14th time after missing the festivities last year in Orlando for the first time in his career. It is not immediately clear if Duncan's injury situation will affect those plans.

If it makes the Spurs feel better about proceeding without Duncan, they have been here before — and as recently as last week.

After spearheading a victory Jan. 21 in Philadelphia, Duncan missed four consecutive games with lingering soreness in his left knee before returning Saturday.

The Spurs ripped off four consecutive wins without him, part of a season-best 10-game winning streak they will now take with them on the road.

It is true that all four of those victories — over New Orleans, Phoenix, Charlotte and Washington — came at home against the dregs of the league. With five of the next nine opponents under .500, however, it's not as if the rodeo trip constitutes a visit to the torture chamber.

Having already banked a league-best 38-11 record, the Spurs own a hefty margin of error in the Western Conference playoff race.

“We've still got a team,” said Boris Diaw, the 10th-year player likely to start at Duncan's power forward spot. “We'll have to play a little differently. When Timmy's not there, we don't play in the post as much. We try to move the ball a little more.”

Throughout his 15-plus NBA seasons, Duncan has enjoyed remarkable fortune when it comes to contact injuries.

Most of the 33 games he has missed since 2004-05 have been for reasons of rest, prescribed by Popovich.

The last time Duncan missed more than two consecutive games with injury was in December 2007, when he suffered a sprained ankle and bruised knee after getting tangled with Portland's James Jones. He missed four games over 12 days.

Coincidentally, Webster — then a Trail Blazer — was on the floor for that spill as well, though he was not involved in the play.

“He's one of the greatest ever to play this game because he's a tough guy,” Spurs guard Danny Green said of Duncan. “He's played through some pain and some injuries. He's not going to show you he's hurt.”

How soon Duncan might return to the court to resume his season-long taunting of Father Time remains to be seen.

In the meantime, Duncan's teammates are preparing to go on without him, bolstered by Sunday's revelation he could be back sooner rather than later.

“We don't know how long he's going to be out, but we still have to get the job done,” forward Stephen Jackson said. “We just have to continue playing with a sense of urgency regardless of what team we're playing or who's out there.”